What the job is like and the way much they make

The kids Spencer teaches attend sessions together with her for about 4 hours a day because one hour of personal tutoring is akin to 3 hours of standard school, she said.

She consults with teachers at their schools, she said, to create lessons that cover what they’d be learning back at home. She may prepare them for exams they’ve on their return.

Spencer also incorporates details about local culture, cuisine and customs into her sessions. For instance, Spencer said, when she was in Oman she was working with a family who hadn’t experienced an Arabic country before.

“It is not about me imparting knowledge,” she told CNBC Travel. “It’s about me being there as more like a facilitator to make them curious and ask questions on things that they are experiencing — spotting differences, spotting similarities.

“It’s demanding in your teaching skills because you have to actually understand the family and their cultural beliefs, and the way you may make those little humans that you simply’re working with into higher versions, even than their parents.”

Spencer’s progressive outlook just isn’t for all families, she said. 

She tends to work with startup founders who want to reveal their children to other ways of learning and pondering, she said.

She prefers to be often known as a “facilitator” or “educator” somewhat than a teacher or a tutor, she said.

“There will definitely be educators who travel with a family, and it looks similar to school,” she said. “But to me, that is not the world education that I concentrate on — that is simply doing international tutoring.”

The change in title also means she must manage families’ expectations about her role, Spencer said. She needs to make sure families won’t confuse her for a nanny who provides extensive child care, or an au pair, who could also be expected to do light chores.

“My remit is certainly education. I’m not with the family, staying of their house. I all the time stay individually, although I would join them for dinner sometimes. It’s an interesting conversation to have — defining that concept and expectation that it is not a vacation nanny role,” she said.

Which means interviewing is a two-way street, she said.

Traveling teaching gigs comprise around 10% of Education Boutique’s business, while the remainder matches educators with students with learning issues or who need private exam preparation. Spencer began the business in 2016 after spending nearly 4 years as a schoolteacher the UK and Dubai. She has a bachelor’s degree in primary teacher education.

Spencer said she desires to make traveling teachers available to more families, by creating cheaper options, equivalent to pairing families with trained students taking a spot yr.

“There are plenty of very engaging young people who find themselves paying plenty of money to travel the world as a part of a spot yr and can likely go on to good degrees and careers in the long run,” said Spencer.

“Why couldn’t we position a spot yr as, as an alternative of somebody having to pay, they might educate students as they go world wide,” she said. “And if a family knows that they are going to, say, Thailand, somewhat than that family paying for the flight for an educator to hitch them there, we develop into that connector [for] someone who’s already going to be there.”

Spencer said she’s committed to either side of Education Boutique — finding jobs for traveling teachers and people who need to support special education children.

“We see our role as a vital one, supporting essentially the most privileged children globally and essentially the most disadvantaged locally,” said Spencer.